5. Reading. Task 3.1. Space Travel

The first part of the Reading Task 3

 

 

Think back to the beginning of commercial aviation in the 20th century. The Wright brothers flew their Wright Flyer on 17 December 1903, proving that heavier-than-air flight was possible. On 1 January 1914 the world’s first passenger flight took off from Tampa and landed in St. Petersburg, Florida, a trip lasting only 23 minutes. The Wright Flyer was a giant leap, and while that first passenger flight was only a small step, it ultimately paved the way for today’s commercial aviation industry, which has transformed global society and opened up new industries and economies.

Fast-forward to July 2021 when Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic demonstrated a small step towards opening up the space domain for broader access with the successful flight of VSS Unity, a sub-orbital rocket plane. On July 11 it flew to the edge of space, allowing its crew and paying passengers to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the Earth as if from orbit. Critics have dismissed the flight and subsequent launches by Branson’s competitors as mere stunts and attacked space billionaires for investing time and money in what they claim are frivolous efforts. The critics don’t see the bigger picture.

Space tourism needs to be considered as just one element of an effort to expand human access to the space domain and open up the final frontier for large-scale entrepreneurial activities. The era of government-run space programs – what’s been called ‘old space’ or ‘Space 1.0’, epitomised by NASA’s Apollo missions – limited the ability of societies to use space for broad purposes beyond satellites in orbit. What low-cost space access does is allow states and commercial actors to exploit space directly in new and exciting and much more far-reaching ways.

But to achieve this goal, the proponents of space tourism need to aspire to more than suborbital joyrides for the mega-rich. The industry needs to make a determined effort to provide regular and safe access to low Earth orbit (LEO) for a wide range of paying customers. If the cost can be brought down to the equivalent of a business-class airfare and paying passengers can fly into orbit with confidence in the safety of the craft, the space tourism market will take off. Failure to achieve this ‘space is for everyone’ goal will likely see space tourism wither

The space tourism sector, therefore, needs to quickly take the next step to develop the technology for cost-efficient access to LEO. That will require new types of launch vehicles and a blurring of the line between space tourism and the broader elements of commercial space. Space tourism companies need to engage with commercial space companies that are developing commercial orbital platforms for manufacturing and research because it will broaden their customer base and strengthen their business model.

Of course, governments can benefit from space tourism, too, as paying customers by using the launch vehicles private companies develop for various purposes. Imagine the potential applications for vehicles constructed for orbital space tourism, including supporting countries’ national security needs.

This isn’t simply about generating a profitable new economic sector or getting easier access to orbit. On a broader level, space tourism contributes to transforming how humanity thinks about its future in space and increases its prospects for becoming a spacefaring civilization. That future, with humans living and working in space, both for exploration and commercial activity, is a positive vision.